


A Night in Sipani

by Vera_dAuriac



Category: The Age of Madness - Joe Abercrombie, The First Law - Joe Abercrombie
Genre: First Time, Fix-It, Friends to Lovers, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Rutting, The Trouble with Peace, spoilers for The Trouble with Peace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:20:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26605882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vera_dAuriac/pseuds/Vera_dAuriac
Summary: Things don't go well with King Jappo at Cardotti's, but Leo finds a little comfort with Jurand.
Relationships: Jurand/Leo dan Brock
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15





	A Night in Sipani

**Author's Note:**

> Because Joe never lets us have nice things, here's the version of what happens after Leo leaves Cardotti's that I think we all would have liked. If you haven't read The Trouble with Peace, what little plot there is with this porn probably won't make sense.
> 
> And thanks for the support, folks over at Discord. I appreciate it!
> 
> I don't own these folks, I just love them differently than the man who does.

**by Vera d'Auriac**

Leo found the walk back from Cardotti’s infinitely worse than the one there, even though he knew where he was going this time. He realized he had messed up, badly, with King Jappo. The situation might be salvageable though, right? But he couldn’t see it no matter where he looked, and hopefully Jurand could. Jurand, who had rested his hand on Leo’s shoulder earlier that evening and made him feel…safe? Warm? Complete?

That didn’t matter. Seeing if Jurand had a solution to the mess Leo had made with Jappo mattered. If he went home and had to tell Savine he’d gotten nothing from Styria and had parted with the king on bad terms, she would be furious. When they married, wasn’t she supposed to take care of the meetings and the politics? Why had she even let him come on this trip to talk to Jappo alone? He should have at least insisted on Jurand coming to the meeting with him. But even though he didn’t understand the protocol of meeting with a head of government in a brothel, he knew bringing someone to explain his offer for him would have been nearly as bad as what happened.

There was probably nothing he could do now. Jappo wouldn’t see him again before Leo had to leave, and even if he agreed to it, what else could Leo do but offer Westport and look like a fool for only mentioning it after the first meeting was a disaster. No, Leo had no options left with Jappo, but he needed Jurand to confirm that for him. And then to show Leo some way to make this all better. Maybe to even put that hand on his shoulder again and make him feel…grounded?

Even though he was sober, by the time he and Antaup arrived back at their rooms, Leo’s head hurt as much as his blasted leg. He had no illusions about how bad he was at scheming and plotting and politics, and he needed someone who knew how to use his head right now. As soon as he could just sit down somewhere quiet with Jurand, everything would be better. 

When they got inside, Glaward was sprawled, passed out on a couch. Antaup giggled at the site of their large friend spilling over the side, one leg and arm on the floor. “Let’s pour another drink, shall we?” Antaup slurred at Leo.

“How about you have a seat here and I’ll think about it,” Leo answered, pouring the drunk idiot into a chair. He went over to close the door to the balcony, the evening breeze cooler than it had been, and by the time he turned back around, Antaup had already started softly snoring.

He headed for Jurand’s room. Jurand’s mask from Cardotti’s hung on the doorknob, and it made Leo smile, remembering how well the bird had suited him. He reached through the strap, turned the knob, and entered.

Jurand wasn’t in bed yet, which Leo supposed he had been counting on when he just burst in, looking for advice and a friendly ear. But of course, given the late hour, he could have been. He already had most of his clothes off—jacket, shirt, trouser, socks—the whole lot except his drawers. Not that he looked like he was getting ready for bed; rather, he was just sitting at the window looking at the same bridge where they’d seen the violinist earlier, bathed in soft moonlight.

“Beautiful,” Leo found himself whispering for the second time.

“How did it go?” Jurand asked, standing up and taking a few strides nearer.

Leo’s eyes drifted to Jurand’s stomach, much as they had when he’d been with Jappo. He’d seen Jurand’s stomach a million times, but somehow tonight, he felt an urge to touch it, to run his fingers over and around each individual muscle. Why tonight? What had changed? Leo felt like something inside him was breaking.

“Leo, what happened?” Jurand asked when he stopped right in front of him.

Something was blocking Leo’s throat, and for a minute, he couldn’t answer. Finally, he forced out the ugly, pitiful truth. “I did everything wrong.” He couldn’t look at Jurand as he admitted this, so he had no idea how his best friend had taken the news of his failure. “Can you…,” he started, but couldn’t figure out how to finish the sentence.

“Can I what, Leo? Can I what?” Jurand’s whisper sounded a little desperate, but not at all like he hated Leo. “I’ll do anything for you. Just tell me.”

Leo looked up and saw Jurand’s soft, sincere face, and at last he could speak, even if his voice came out a little soft and shaky. “Can you put your hand on my shoulder like you did earlier? When we were out on the balcony. Please?”

And once more, Jurand reached out and touched Leo like he had a million times but also like he never had before. The hand came to rest gently on Leo’s shoulder, and as he had earlier, Jurand softly squeezed. But then his thumb began to rub tenderly back and forth along Leo’s collarbone. Leo closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath, and as he had so longed to do earlier that evening, he rested his cheek against that hand.

Jurand stopped moving, and Leo turned his face toward his shoulder, reached up with his own hand and took Jurand’s so he might turn it over and press his lips to the palm.

“Leo.”

But Leo didn’t say anything, instead squeezing his eyes shut and just letting his urges take over. He clasped Jurand’s hand tightly and brought the backs of the fingers to his mouth. He kissed Jurand’s hand, embraced it even harder, and pressed it to his heart. Then he opened his eyes and saw his friend looking at him, amazed, lovely in the moonlight filtering through the window from the other side of the room.

Leo wanted to say so much, to say everything, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t know what he was doing or what he was feeling. He didn’t know what was about to happen, but he knew even less how to stop it. Nothing made sense, and yet he knew that somehow Jurand’s callused, beautiful hand had the answers.

He once more squeezed Jurand’s hand fiercely in both of his own before releasing it with his right hand and burying that in Jurand’s hair. In this position—one hand twisted in Jurand’s curls, the other clutching Jurand’s hand to his chest—there was only one thing that felt natural to Leo. So he kissed Jurand.

In an instant, Jurand’s lips parted and he was kissing Leo back.

Jurand pressed his body against Leo’s, reminding Leo how nearly naked he was. He had always thought Jurand the handsomest of his friends, and he had just been thinking about touching Jurand’s stomach, of tracing the line of hair there all the way to where it disappeared into his drawers. But could he really do that? Could he _stop_ himself from doing that?

Feeling secure that Jurand would not pull away from the kiss if he didn’t keep a hand tangled in Jurand’s hair, Leo let that hand slide down Jurand’s body. It paused to stoke the knobble at the throat and slide over a hard nipple, but soon it found Jurand’s stomach. For a moment he remembered how Rikke used to like to touch him there, and while he had been flattered, only now did he fully understand the appeal. Caressing the force and elegance and strength just under the skin made his body tingle.

“Oh, Leo. Fuck. Sorry. It’s just,” Jurand panted. “I need to get your clothes off.”

Leo could not have been happier to comply. If he had his clothes off, their two stomachs could touch. And their chests. And their legs. He swallowed awkwardly, realizing how hard he was getting. Did he actually want that? Did he want Jurand’s hand around him, for instance? Fuck. Did he want his own hand on Jurand?

“Oh shit, Leo, I’m sorry. We don’t have to do anything.” Jurand looked as if he might be blushing, but it was impossible to say in only moonlight.

What was that Northern saying Rikke was always spouting? Better to do a thing than live with the fear of it? There wasn’t even anything to be afraid of here. He’d touched a cock before plenty of times. Granted, it was his own, but now it would be Jurand’s, and everything about this moment felt right. And so he slipped his hand between their bodies and grabbed Jurand’s erection through his drawers. Jurand closed his eyes and moaned, and not knowing what to say, Leo pressed his lips hard to Jurand’s throat and sucked.

Soon Jurand got himself back on mission and set to work on Leo’s clothes. Never before had the concept of being dressed seemed so senseless to Leo, and he wished that he’d just come in here naked. But there was nothing he could do but get in the way if he tried to help, so he just kept rubbing Jurand’s cock. It felt heavy and good in his hand, and although he’d seen Jurand without clothes plenty of times, he’d never had a good look at his erect cock. It felt like it was a good size—not too long, but nothing to be embarrassed about, and nicely thick. He wanted to see it. Touch without anything between them.

“Leo, you’re beautiful,” Jurand said as he pulled Leo’s shirt off.

Leo used the moment to yank at the laces of Jurand’s drawers and loosen them just enough that he could force them over the hips and to the floor. Leo didn’t hesitate to wrap his fist around Jurand’s cock, the skin soft and hot. How had he never realized how much he needed this?

Jurand soon had Leo’s trousers and drawers over his hips as well, the only annoying pause coming when they needed to get his boots off. He was normally so proud of these boots, and he had taken particular care that the shine on them tonight could not be bettered. That didn’t matter now. He just wanted the damned things off as fast as possible, digging into the back of one with the toe of the other, he needed them out of their damned way.

“Sit,” Jurand said, backing Leo to a chair and pushing him down into it. Leo’s cock twitched. Jurand knelt on the fancy Gurkish carpet at Leo’s feet, and after a few swift tugs, Leo sat there completely naked.

Once more, Leo reminded himself that it wasn’t actually odd for him to see Jurand naked. They’d known each other since they were boys. They swam in streams together and lived together in the army. They knew each other’s bodies, or so Leo had thought. But now, for the first time, his eyes could linger and take in as much of Jurand as he wanted. He didn’t need to look hastily away, not understanding why he felt that slight sense of shame. No, now he could appreciate every muscle and joint and curve. The shape of Jurand. The only problem was that he couldn’t limit himself to just looking.

Leo threw himself out of the chair on top of Jurand. 

Their mouths smashed together, their tongues fighting each other, lips wet and sore. Jurand pulled Leo closer, their bodies aligned on the floor, both of them hard and a little sweaty. All of Leo’s senses were so overwhelmed that he couldn’t think what to do next. He wanted to claw into Jurand, to let Jurand do anything he wanted with him, to lay here exchanging hungry kisses through the rest of the night and the day tomorrow. His whole body thrummed with possibilities he did not know how to make realities.

But Jurand seemed to know how to make everything work exactly right. He put his hand at the small of Leo’s back, and shifted his hips so that they each had their cock in the hollow of the other’s groin. Once Jurand set a rhythm, by the dead, it was nearly like fucking. Only now it was Jurand, and that made it new and perfect, the frantic need elevating every thrust to pleasure Leo had not dreamed possible.

And, of course, that’s when his damn leg started to throb so badly he couldn’t ignore it. He grunted, and Jurand, being Jurand, immediately noticed that this grunt was different from the others. He awkwardly broke their kiss and peered up at Leo.

“What’s—Oh shit, Leo. Sorry.” Jurand rolled Leo off him and settled him softly on the thick carpet before crawling on top, barely missing a beat in the maneuver. Before putting any weight on Leo, though, he paused, and asked, “Better?”

“Better.” Leo pulled Jurand’s mouth back to his own, and they resumed.

And this _was_ even better. Nothing hurt and he could just focus on the friction of their cocks and the wild searching of their hands and mouths. How had he not let himself have this for so long? How had he not realized this is what he wanted? Somehow nothing had ever felt more natural than his body slotted together with Jurand’s. It was like they had been waiting for the other without even knowing it.

It felt so good, in fact, Leo didn’t think he could hold out much longer. Everything in his body longed to explode, his cock most of all. He never wanted this to end, but he couldn’t hold himself back with Jurand pushing down on him, alternately pinning and rubbing his cock in the most wonderful way.

Leo dug his fingers into the top of Jurand’s back and clench his teeth until his jaws ached. “Fuck, oh fuck, Jurand. Jurand!”

The orgasm sent a shudder through his whole body, a vibration he felt from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. And it just kept coming. When he though he was done, there was more, until he whimpered into Jurand’s neck with a final burst.

He couldn’t move or think for several moments. He could still feel Jurand in his arms, feel that beautiful body moving over him, but Leo didn’t have space in his head for a single coherent thought. Everything he had always wanted, had never known he wanted, had just shattered everything about him, and he didn’t know what to do. He trembled with the confusion.

“Leo,” Jurand softly moaned.

And that brought Leo back, at least as far as remembering that every good feeling that he had at this moment was thanks to Jurand and he needed to show his gratitude. He dragged a hand down Jurand’s back stopping at the top curve of his glorious arse and pressed Jurand closer. The ragged whimper sounded positive to Leo’s ears, so he pressed harder and thrust up his own hip, holding Jurand in the notch of his body until Jurand’s breath picked up and his body quivered.

And once more he whispered, “Leo.”

With that, he spent on Leo’s stomach, Leo never giving any though to what it would be like to have another man’s spend sticky on his own body. The contented hum Jurand let escape him when he sank down made Leo decide it was good, all of it—the spend, the rug burn he now realized he had on his arse, and all the rest. It was good. Right?

Without suspecting what was about to happen, Leo started crying. He didn’t cry normally, meaning he didn’t cry ever. Well, there might have been a few tears during the worst of his recovery after his time in the Circle, but those tears had made sense. Why would he cry now? Just a minute ago, he had felt better than he ever had before in his life. And yet, he was crying now, streams of tears as wide as the Whiteflow streaking his cheeks.

“Leo?” Jurand asked, sliding off to lay on his side next to Leo. “Leo, what’s wrong? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No. No,” Leo repeated convincing himself this was true. “I…oh fuck, Jurand, am I okay?”

Jurand used his thumb to brush away tears from Leo’s cheek. “Yes, Leo. You’re okay. You’re beautiful and perfect. You’re very okay.”

“Are you sure? Because…I don’t know. I mean, really? I’m okay? Really okay? There’s nothing…wrong with me?”

This time, Jurand kissed away a few tears from the other cheek. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Leo. You couldn’t be more right.”

“So, I’m okay?”

“You’re okay.”

Leo rolled over to face Jurand, his heart so full, but growing less conflicted with every breath he took at Jurand’s side. Somehow, if Jurand said it, Leo knew it was true, as much as he couldn’t believe it otherwise. He took a deep breath and let it out slow. “I’m okay.”

“You’re okay.”

And they kissed, for the first time with a sweetness they hadn’t had time for earlier. Leo couldn’t believe it, but he liked this even more. And when Jurand gently stroked his hip, Leo found himself enjoying this moment more than anything else he had ever experienced with a lover. He wanted to curl into Jurand’s chest and stay there forever. He knew he wouldn’t really be able to do that, and he couldn’t think what would happen tomorrow, and certainly not what awaited him when he got back to Angland. But for now, for now he would enjoy having this moment.


End file.
